From ROW DTLA to activations across the city, a true celebration of design

Through 10 June, Los Angeles celebrated the LLA Design Festival, an activation of the city’s illustrious community. Primarily housed within ROW DTLA, a retail and restaurant destination that reimagines Downtown LA’s historic Market District, the festival offered moments of Southern Californian design by way of gallery showrooms and experiences. From Design is for Everyone’s gallery presentation of works by multi-discipline designers to INTRO/LA—a showroom that curates some of the most exciting home and furniture designers in the city—and even a blooming workshop space, the festival engaged designers and design fans by offering tours, talks, and various parties in and around set spaces.

The festival aims to make the city a design capital, using ROW DTLA as a de facto city within a city to celebrate design. It also places the festival among local retail staples like Poketo and A+R. It’s more than one destination, however. The festival incorporated over eighty events across the city, including a field trip with CreativeMornings, a “Drink + Draw” event from Scout Books and Geit it GIrl Collective, a design-focused bike ride with de Lab, and a patio party hosted by Brendan Ravenhill. While Milan Design Week and happenings around ICFF in New York City may steal attention, the LA Design Festival opts for a more casual and cool approach to the same concept by slipping in activations where Los Angeles’ mini-communities come together.

As founder of the festival Haily Zaki explains, “LA is no longer maligned as a city without culture or merit. Now, LA is the place where everyone wants to be.” Clearly, people do come for the sun but they’re staying for communities like those exhibited at the LA Design Festival.